Wednesday, 19 September 2012

Sepia Saturday 144 : 22 September 2012

My archive prompt this week is a little different, notable not for what is there, but for what isn't. In this case, a head. The photograph comes from the Library of Congress collection on Flickr Commons and shows a 12 year old boy working as a theatre usher in Birmingham Alabama. But it is the man on the right of the photograph I want to focus on, and in particular, his missing head. Now we all have old photographs like this in our collection : missing heads, missing feet, missing arms - perfect examples of the photographer as a decapitator. You might, of course, have boxes full of perfect old photos - not a missing limb in sight - in which case feel free to follow whichever prompt you like (convicts, boys, striped pyjamas) or no prompt at all. Just post your old image along with your new thoughts on or around Saturday 22 September and link it to the list below.

Here is a quick preview of the next two Sepia Saturday prompts for those who like to plan ahead.

But let us not get ahead of ourselves, for the moment let us concentrate on the missing head. Post your posts and don't forget to head off to look at all the other contributors to Sepia Saturday 144.

Hi! I am not on theme this week at all, and I'm not even sure who will want to wade through my whole post ... if you don't want to, just skip to the second part where the print is in brown (my own family). That being said, it is a very interesting chapter from Tin Pot Valley, though not Wilfred's usual amusing stuff. Tons of history on the Drain, Yoncalla and early Oregon writers.

Also, we are leaving early Friday morning, and will be gone for several days. I will try to do my best to catch up with all of you later on though.

No headless or limbless family pictures but I enjoyed this week's theme anyway. Hope you do as well but only after it is posted. And assuming it is finished by then I'll do that on Saturday 00.01 hrs local Amsterdam time (GMT +2).

When I went through my father's pictures, there were plenty of chopped off heads but I got rid of most of them. I took another road, a spiritual road to this week's theme, yet I can't decide whether I am a themer, or not!! It is certainly something you're not expecting, and one I hope won't send you rioting in the streets...

Last week Wendy of Jollett etc. jokingly said I was always "last" on the SS list, something I hadn't noticed before. That was so funny! She's a hoot! I guess I did it again this week (at least so far).

Sepia Saturday

Launched by Alan Burnett and Kat Mortensen in 2009, Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs. Historical photographs of any age or kind (they don't have to be sepia) become the launchpad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images. If you want to play along, all we ask is that your sign up to the weekly Linky List, that you try to visit as many of the other participants as possible, and that you have fun.